This article is the 2nd in a series of four articles regarding Physical Inventory Counting using a PDT. If if you have followed part 1, continue with this one. If not, navigate to the appropriate section from the menu below:

The best way to use Portable Data Terminals (PDTs) is with Product Lookup Tables, which let you download key details from your Artisan inventory database into the PDT. Then when you scan an item in the PDT (or type in a code), allowing you to know whether this item exist in you database. If the scanned code is not in your database, you immediately get an error, so you can set the item aside and investigate it.

Without Lookup Tables, the scans are not validated until you upload to the computer, by which point you probably don't know which physical item it was. Lookup Tables also let you see the product description, SKU or Vendor's P/N, Retail Price, and optionally current Qty On Hand, as soon as you scan each item (it depends on how big you lookup table is if you include more information about items, the device has limited memory to 1 MB).

It is not necessary, however, to include as much information about the items, Simple Item & Qty - No Product Lookups should suffice for most people. (You will learn more about this options soon).

Product Lookup Tables are only supported in Artisan version 3.2.14 or later, and only with Metrologic Optimus S and ScanPal 2 brand PDTs.

Before you start using your Portable Data Terminal (PDT), make sure it is correctly set up and programmed. Make sure your Device Configuration Settings include the appropriate PDT Program & Lookup Table Settings (see below). For information about installing & configuring PDTs, see section 5.2.5.9 of the Artisan User's Manual Version 3.0, and read below.

Lookup Table Options

Before you use Product Lookup Tables for the first time, you must set up the related configuration options.

After you choose your PDT Brand/Model and Port, you must select the PDT Program you want to use. This controls whether a Product Lookup Table is used, and if so, what information is included in the table for each record.

The most common PDT Programs include either the SKU or Vendor's P/N (to display, regardless of which code you scan), along with the Description, (Retail) Price, and optionally the current QOH (Qty On Hand). There are also a few more specialized PDT Programs:

Product Lookup w/No Data Entry (Price Checker) - This program shows the SKU, Description, Price, and QOH without expecting any quantity to be entered. Just press the Enter key to clear the PDT screen and move on to the next item. This can be used to check prices or stock levels, or verify labels, without uploading any data.

Item Code Only - Scan Each Unit - Most of the PDT programs prompt for a quantity (Qty) after you scan (or type) an item code. This program instead moves on to the next record immediately, with an assumed quantity of one, so you can just scan, scan, scan, without keying in anything. Use this if you have mostly unique items or items with small quantities, and don't want to verify each item. (The PDT will still give you an error with a beep if you scan a code that's not in the lookup table.)

The last group of settings control which codes from the Item Record can be used to scan or type an item into the PDT when using lookup tables. Be careful not to choose too many codes at once, as you may run out of memory in the PDT. The amount of memory needed for a lookup table is a factor of the number of Item Records in your database times the number of fields to be shown on the PDT screen (based on which PDT Program you select), times the number of distinct non-blank lookup codes included for each item. You can also reduce the amount of memory used by including only some of your items (for example, by Category) when you download the lookup table, as described below.

Once you've set up your Lookup Table options, you can download a Lookup Table at any time. (Whenever you're going to use the PDT, and you may have added items or made any changes that would affect the Lookup Table, you should download it again.)

This screen will let you choose to download only some of your items into the PDT, by selecting individual categories, vendors, etc; or you can simply select the Start button to include all inventory items. (By default, non-inventory items--those with Inventory Tracking Off--are excluded.) Usually, you would download all of your items to the PDT, unless you have so many items that they won't fit into the PDT at once.

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